• Wire Wisdom
• The ABCs of the IIoT
• Hand Shake or Contract
• Crimp Monitor Limitations
• The Heart of Quality
• The Power Women of the Wire Harness Industry
• Market Changes Drive Innovation at Stapla Ultrasonics Corporation
January
February
2018
ISC Engineering
Providing Expertise in Overmolded Assemblies
By Joe Tito
Wiring Harness News
______________________________
I
SC Engineering specializes
in custom molded cable
assemblies and the technology
that surrounds them. With quick
turnaround times, they are geared
for low volume, high mix assemblies
in the audio, automotive, industrial,
medical and military industries. What
is unusual about ISC is that they are
also heavily involved in transferring
this technology to OEMs and other
cable assembly suppliers.
Given this unique business model,
one can see why it was fascinating to
have a conversation with its founder
and President, Steve Burk. The man-
Medical Multi Connector Transition
Custom Molded Mil-Spec Bulkhead Harness.
agement team at ISC wanted to use
their experiences to expand the uti-
lization of molded cable assembly
technology within the industry so
Steve co-founded the company in
1999 after having successfully owned
and operated Inland Empire Inter-
connects where they were a world
leader in PCMCIA cable assemblies
and the overmolding of PCBA’s. “IEI
“was later sold to ARROW Electronics
(Richey Electronics). “The year my
contract was up I started this compa-
ny with a unique philosophy of being
a cable assembly company designed
to sell its “Know How”. Steve re-
counted, “The decision to focus ISC’s
business model was based solely on
the desire to utilize our strengths in
solution oriented development in
the interconnect industry and at the
same time provide specialty products
that would make it easier to gain the
benefits afforded by molded cable as-
sembly solutions. “
ISC will custom tool to produce
molded solutions for connectors or
cable assemblies, but their customers
are often other harness manufactur-
ers. Steve detailed, “If we have a har-
ness assembly company that wants to
do their own molding, we will assist
them in vertical integration by rec-
ommending the machines, designing
and building the molds, and training
them in how to injection mold the
parts.”
ISC will provide information on
molding equipment, compounds,
tooling and all other levels of
expertise to get a cable assembly over
molding capability up and running.
They bring a different level of service
to the market where customers can
have ISC design a custom molding
solution. The
companies
can
terminate the assemblies themselves,
and then send to ISC for molding,
until such time as it makes sense for
_____________ Continued on page 25
Market Changes Drive Innovation at Stapla Ultrasonics Corporation
By Joe Tito
Wiring Harness News
______________________________
T
he proliferation of Hybrid
Electric
and
Electric
Vehicles has created quite
a boon for many equipment suppliers
to the wire harness industry.
This has been especially true for
manufacturers of ultrasonic welding
equipment. The folks at Stapla
Ultrasonics Corporation contacted
WHN and asked to tell readers how
they are set up to meet these and
other industry challenges.
Stapla is located in Wilmington,
MA, and was founded in 1986.
They are a subsidiary of Schunk
Sonosystems, a member of the
Schunk Group, headquartered in
Heucheleim, Germany.
Stapla and Schunk Sonosystems,
combined,
are
the
largest
manufacturer of ultrasonic metal
welding
products
worldwide.
Stapla offers products, engineering
and support services to industry
segments including: automotive,
appliance (large, small and HVAC),
battery (Lithium Ion and others),
solar and other electrical segments.
New equipment setup.
As I settled in for the interview, and customers have changed, and
I was struck by the level of how they are addressing the new
excitement and commitment to challenges. “The main way the mar-
the meeting. Present in the room ket has changed for us is with the
were representatives from upper insurgence of hybrid (HV) and elec-
management, sales, engineering tric vehicles (EV), and that’s driving
development, production, and quality. us towards much larger systems,” he
Since my initial point of contact said. Ten years ago, Stapla’s typical
was Jeff Roman, he kicked things off
by talking about how their market _____________ Continued on page 42